The American Physician in Occupational Medicine and Hygiene

The satisfactory quality of the practice of occupational medicine in industry is essential to the safety and health of employees. Measures of environmental control are not, in themselves, a satisfactory means of protecting workmen against many common hazards of industrial operations. Careful surveillance of workmen by trained, experienced, and competent occupational physicians is essential in the prevention of illness and disability induced by occupational operations, materials, and types of energy. The professional responsibilities of the occupational physician extend beyond the industrial facility into the general environment where the escaping production materials, by-products, and wastes may penetrate, and also into the larger community where its products may be distributed. The gross inadequacy in the number of trained physicians in the professional field must be met before this urgent problem of national health can be solved.